I am the GM of Thinknear by Telenav. Previously I was the CEO/co-founder of ThinkNear which was acquired by TeleNav [NASDAQ: TNAV] and funded by IA, Google, and Qualcomm. Before that I worked on product at Amazon. In a previous life (i.e. for my last startup) I was named one of the "Top Young Entrepreneurs" by BusinessWeek and the "21st Coolest Young Entrepreneur" by Inc. magazine. I got my BA from UPenn and an MBA from Harvard.

Doing Everything Is Not a Startup Strategy

Many entrepreneurs have a favorite slide to show during their pitches. It compares their company to the competitive set and highlights all of the great things they can do that others can’t. This is often the death knell for these companies.

In fact, last week I participated as a judge for UCLA’s business school Knapp Venture Competition. Every pitch tried to differentiate its company from the competition by showing how it could do lots of extra things that their competitors couldn’t. They would say something like: “Our competitors only do this, but we can do that and seven other things.”

All the bright-eyed founders thought that rattling off a list of differentiating features was a good thing. But I thought it was a terrible idea. Why? Because focusing on a single thing—a singular product feature, an outstanding experience, a particular service—means you’re on the right track to standing out in the marketplace.

Big companies can—and should—do a lot

Big companies differentiate by having multiple products. They win because they can offer a single solution and minimize customers’ pain of having to work with multiple companies. Think of your cable company, which not only offers you cable service but also telephone and Internet access through a single business relationship. Big companies usually have lots of resources and mediocre products so it makes sense that their strategy is to offer consumers and businesses the convenience of a single place to shop. The wealth of resources needed to do this creates a barrier to entry for smaller incumbents.

Moreover, big companies also need to generate huge revenue. They can’t focus on a single product because they need to continue to grow their revenue base by adding on products and services.

Startups win with focus

Startups have few resources so their best strategy is to focus and find a single thing they can do ten times better than anyone else. This is how you get consumers and businesses to ditch the convenience and safety of big company. They choose to work with a small startup because the benefits make it worth the hassle of having yet another relationship with another company.

With few resources, a small startup can only do a single thing better than the competition as a startup. Trying to do too much usually results in doing everything poorly.

Less is More When Telling a Story

Another benefit of focus for startups is that it enables better marketing. The only way to get mindshare is to have a simple story. It’s hard to be succinct in describing several products. By having a clear and singular focus you can more easily craft a simple story that resonates with customers. This in turn makes it easier to generate PR. And most importantly of all, an easy to describe product and differentiation allows consumers to more easily tell your story and help you create viral growth.

Take Uber and its legions of devoted users. When the service launched, would anyone had cared if they had a slightly better taxi experience, but could also make deliveries? No, that would have just been them trying to do too much and, most likely, doing it all poorly. Instead, people care about Uber because it is way, way better and way, way more convenient than riding a taxi. Uber focused on one thing—being a great transportation app—and devoted all its resources into doing that one thing really, really well. This in turn made it a great PR and viral story.

Case Studies

All great startups start by doing one thing really, really well. Amazon started out by selling only books. Google started doing only search. Apple started only selling a single model computer. Tesla started selling a single model car. I challenge you to find a single startup that tried to do more than one thing really, really well when first starting out.

So … if you want to build a huge business, but are still just a startup, focus on the one thing you can do much better than anyone else.

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